The present invention is concerned with antiinflammatory agents and, in particular, with enol esters and ether prodrugs of 3-acyl-2-oxindole-1-carboxamides, a class of known nonsteroidal antiinflammatory agents.
The use of oxindole as antiinflammatory agents was first reported in U.S. 3,634,453, and consisted of 1-substituted-2-oxindole-3-carboxamides. Recently, a series of 3-acyl-2-oxindole-1-carboxamides was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,672 to be inhibitors of the cyclooxygenase (CO) and lipoxygenase (LO) enzymes and to be useful as analgesic and antiinflammatory agents in mammalian subjects.